Instantor's Blog

AI has been gaining popularity in recent years, particularly as it’s been improving in leaps and bounds for a whole range of tasks: from predicting the risk of child abuse in a given family to beating world champion Go players.

However, one critical problem with using it for decision making in business is that the machine learning models can't explain the predictions they make: a customer might, reasonably, want to know why their cred it card or home loan application was denied.

Our latest solution, Instant Access, gives you the power to analyse transactional data through PSD2. This data is used to digitalise credit risk processes – without requiring you to invest in any tech resources or spend any time on system integration. Moneyveo is the first lender in the Ukrainian market to use this solution and our very first partner in Ukraine.

Recent developments, such as the European Union’s 4th AML Directive, highlight the challenges faced by financial institutions in ensuring KYC compliance in a continuously evolving regulatory landscape. It is now required that European companies disclose information regarding the beneficial owners. However, it’s extremely difficult to create best practices that multinational financial institutions can follow.

We were asked to give a talk at Almi HQ in Stockholm, where a banking delegation was taking place with CEO’s of venture firms and startups from all over Europe. The idea was for us to represent a northern perspective of the tech-sector, with ‘digitalisation’ as the theme. Here at Instantor, we take pride in being a part of supporting the tech-community to grow, share knowledge and challenge one another. In other words, that was of course something we were happy to do.

We're proud to announce we’ve been approved to operate as an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) in Sweden, by the Swedish FSA (Finansinspektionen). We’re the first authorised AISP FinTech in the country, allowing us to build and provide better and even more relevant services.

The Swedish FSA's approval means we can continue developing products that support consumers to prove their true financial capacity. We see it as an important step in helping the financing industry to digitise its processes, as well as a significant step for the future of our company.

Just a few years ago, only a few people in the financial industry had access to an individual’s banking data. Data was ‘owned’ by a few major players such as large financial institutions, and all access had to go through these information gatekeepers. Limited sharing of data has resulted in a stagnated offering of banking products to customers that have not significantly changed in decades: people are paying too much for their overdrafts or money sits in current accounts earning little, or sometimes even no interest. To summarise, customers are not happy.

On-boarding drop-out rates are rising significantly for financial service institutions. Banks are now losing 52% of their potential customers to application drop-out, an increase of 35% from two years ago. Consumers are increasingly frustrated with time-consuming, legacy processes and are willing to switch to challengers in their search for a streamlined, user-friendly experience. In fact, 43% of customers who had low satisfaction during new account opening indicated they will “definitely or probably” switch as a result.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the banking landscape has undergone a seismic shift to a new age of innovation and digital transformation, marked by the advent of FinTechs companies. By observing and often experiencing first-hand what banks offer – or do not offer – these new entrants have targeted what consumers perceive as the failings of banks to capture significant market shares.

6% of global consumershave shifted their primary banking relationship from traditional banks to newer companieswith better technologies and simpler products. This percentage is on track for continued growth. In 2015, one in seven digitally activeconsumerswas using FinTech. In just two years, that number has risen to one in three. The banking landscape is fast moving from an era in which a handful of big banks dominated global markets. This is a significant shift in the banking landscape: one that’s driven by radical changes in consumer preferences and underpinned in part by a generational gap.